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Michael Chertoff
2nd Secretary of Homeland Security Department of Homeland Security
In office February 15, 2005 – present
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Tom Ridge
Born	November 28, 1953 (1953-11-28) (age 54) Elizabeth, New Jersey  United States
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Meryl Chertoff
Children	Two
Alma mater	Harvard College Harvard Law School
Occupation	Attorney
Religion	Jewish[1]
Website	DHS Official
From 1979-1980 he served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.

Michael Chertoff (born November 28, 1953 previously served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals, as a federal prosecutor, and as assistant U.S. Attorney General. He was nominated to succeed Tom Ridge by President George W. Bush on January 11, 2005. His nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 15, 2005, in a unanimous 98-0 vote, and Chertoff was sworn into office the same day (although a ceremonial swearing-in presided over by Bush took place on March 3).

Chertoff and his wife Meryl Justin have two children and live in Potomac, Maryland.

Contents 1 Early history 2 Public service 3 Secretary of Homeland Security 3.1 Actions regarding illegal immigration 4 References

Chertoff was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the son of Rabbi Gershon Baruch Chertoff, the former leader of the B'nai Israel Congregation in Elizabeth, and El Al flight attendant Livia Chertoff (née Eisen). His paternal grandfather, Rabbi Paul Chertoff, emigrated from Russia. His grandfather was a noted Talmudic scholar.^[1]

Chertoff went to The Pingry School. He later attended Harvard University, where he was a research assistant on John Hart Ely's Democracy and Distrust, graduating in 1975. He then graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1978, going on to clerk for appellate judge Murray Gurfein for a year before clerking for United States Supreme Court justice William Brennan from 1979 to 1980. He worked in private practice with Latham & Watkins from 1980 to 1983 before being hired as a prosecutor by Rudolph Giuliani, then the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, working on Mafia and political corruption-related cases. In the mid 1990s, Chertoff returned to Latham & Watkins for a brief period, founding the firm's office in Newark, New Jersey.

In September 1986 as Assistant U.S. Attorney, Michael Chertoff together with U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Rudolph Giuliani were instrumental in putting the American (Italian) Mafia on trial. Mafia Don John Gotti served a prison sentence without bail since May 1986, only a few months after he allegedly took control of the Gambino gang following the murder of the previous boss, Paul Castellano. It was the start of the cleanup of that generation of Italian Mafia in New York City and Chicago. "Hitting the Mafia", ED MAGNUSON, Sep. 29, 1986 issue of TIME magazine Gotti died of throat cancer at 12:45 p.m. on June 10, 2002 at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, where he had been transferred once the cancer was diagnosed.

Chertoff was appointed by President George H. W. Bush in 1990 as United States Attorney for the state in 1990. In 1992 Chertoff put 2^nd term Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann in federal prison for over two years on charges of defrauding money from a savings and loan scam. McCann, an Irish born Jersey native, inflamed and insulted the leading prosecutor: "It will become obvious that they were insane to bring this case in the first place. And we are going to send Mr. Chertoff back to preparing wills. Maybe I can find him a job driving a sanitation truck in Jersey City." McCann never was able to run for office again being a convicted felon. Five-Finger Discount: "A Crooked Family History", Helene Stapinski, (c)2002, page 203Jersey City Reporter, "McCann - no holds barred", Ricardo Kaulessar 01/21/2005

Chertoff was asked to stay in his position when the Clinton administration took office in 1993, at the request of Democratic Senator Bill Bradley; he was the only U.S. attorney not replaced. Chertoff stayed with the U.S. Attorney's office until 1994, when he entered private practice, returning to Latham & Watkins as a partner.

Despite his friendly relationship with some Democrats, during the Whitewater scandal investigation of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Chertoff was special counsel for the Senate Whitewater Committee studying allegations against the Clintons. When Chertoff faced Senate confirmation in 2003 for a federal judgeship, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then a Senator from New York, cast the lone dissenting vote against Chertoff's confirmation. She explained that her vote was in protest of the way junior White House staffers were "very badly treated" by Chertoff's staff during the Whitewater investigation.

Chertoff is the co-author, along with Viet Dinh, of the USA PATRIOT Act, signed into law October 26, 2001. As head of the Justice Department's criminal division, he advised the Central Intelligence Agency on the outer limits of legality in coercive interrogation sessions.

In 2000, Chertoff worked as special counsel to the New Jersey State Senate Judiciary Committee, investigating racial profiling in New Jersey. He also did some fundraising for George W. Bush and other Republicans during the 2000 election cycle and advised Bush's presidential campaign on criminal justice issues. From 2001 to 2003, he headed the criminal division of the Department of Justice, leading the prosecution's case against terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui and against accounting firm Arthur Andersen for destroying documents relating to the Enron collapse. His prosecution of Arthur Andersen was controversial, resulting in the collapse of the firm and the loss of employment by its 26,000 employees. The Supreme Court overturned the conviction and the case has not been retried. At the DOJ, he also came under fire as one of the chief architects of the Bush Administration's legal strategies in the War on Terror, particularly regarding the detainment of thousands of Middle Eastern immigrants. Chertoff was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia by Bush on March 5, 2003, and was confirmed by the Senate 88-1 on June 9.

In late 2004, the controversial Bernard Kerik was forced to decline President Bush's offer to replace Tom Ridge, the outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security. After a lengthy search to find a suitable replacement, Bush nominated Chertoff to the post in January 2005 citing his experience with post-9/11 terror legislation. He was unanimously approved for the position by the United States Senate on February 15, 2005.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

While defending the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina in a September 3, 2005 press conference, Chertoff asserted "That 'perfect storm' of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody's foresight." Although New Orleans only experienced Cat 3 hurricane winds and storm surge from Katrina, warnings of the levee's vulnerability to Cat 4 and above hurricanes had come for years from experts in the private sector as well as government agencies at all levels, including FEMA itself, who had identified a disaster such as this as one of the three most likely catastrophes to strike the US.^[8][9][10]

Chertoff was the Bush administration's point man for pushing the comprehensive immigration reform bill, a measure that stalled in the Senate in June 2007.^[11]

On September 5, 2007 Chertoff told a House committee that "I certainly wouldn't tolerate interference" by sanctuary cities that would block his "Basic Pilot Program" that requires employers to validate the legal status of their workers. “We're exploring our legal options. I intend to take as vigorous legal action as the law allows to prevent that from happening, prevent that kind of interference." ^[12]

Preceded by James Peake	Presidential Line of Succession 15th in line	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Tom Ridge	United States Secretary of Homeland Security Served Under: George W. Bush 2005 – present	Incumbent
Preceded by James Peake	United States order of precedence as of 2007	Succeeded by Joshua Bolten

v • d • e United States Secretaries of Homeland Security
Ridge • Chertoff

v • d • e Current members of the United States Cabinet
Bodman · Boltenc · Bushc · Chao · Cheneyc · Chertoff · Connera · Gates · Gutierrez · Jackson · Johnsonc · Kempthorne · Leavitt · Mukasey · Paulson · Peake · Peters · Nusslec · Rice · Schwabc · Spellings · Waltersc (c) cabinet-level only, (a) acting

Persondata
NAME	Chertoff, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	2nd Secretary of Homeland Security of the United States
DATE OF BIRTH	November 28, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH	Elizabeth, New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH